What Not to do, and the plan moving forward

Boudica

Boudica

New member
Hello all,

I’ve lurked off and on for some time now, but as my Jeep is a basic daily driver and I haven’t started upgrading it too much yet, I don’t post. However, now I am faced with an issue and since I don’t mind too much looking like an idiot on the Internet, I am going to take the opportunity to serve as a warning against delaying regular service. I’m thinking of it as paying a stupid tax. Have fun in the comments with this one.

I drive a 2014 Wrangler Sport (manual transmission) with a 4.5in lift and 35 tires- bought not built. It is still mostly a pavement princess with several recent excursions on fire roads and backroads gravel. I have been noticing some brake squeal and a slight pulling to the right for a few months (I think since May?) but just put it down to needing new pads and possibly rotor resurfacing. I’ve put it off because who wants to do car maintenance outside in SE Louisiana summers? (The Jeep won’t fit in the garage.)

I have no idea if this is related, but when Ida hit overnight on Sunday the 29th the Jeep was exposed on the carport. When I was doing damage assessment on the property Monday morning I noticed the front passenger wheel looked like this:
Wheel 1.JPG

But there were many other things taking up my attention that day and the wheel itself looked fine.

I’ve been working almost non-stop since Tuesday the 31st and was driving in the dark, tracking down supplies, or staying at work overnight and the vehicle drove fine with no new noises or issues up until Saturday afternoon- when the brakes failed as I was slowing to a stop, thankfully not going fast. No one was hurt, no accidents were involved, and the Jeep is otherwise fine as far as I can tell. There is still a little bit of stopping power in the rear, and thank goodness for the emergency brake. It’s currently parked at home and I got some pictures yesterday afternoon. The rotor, caliper, and rim are completely toast. And there was brake fluid leaking from the lower caliper mounting bolt. There is a spray pattern all along the inside of the tire.

Wheel Well and Rotor.JPG


Sorry for the picture quality, my patience was running a little thin yesterday. My current plan is to do a complete brake job and replace calipers, rotors, pads, and brake lines (since I really don’t want to go through that with another of the 3 brakes), and use my spare on the front passenger side until I order a new set of 5.

We just got Internet back today at home (there hasn’t been much time to surf it at work), so Youtube University, Wayalife videos and write-ups, and my Haynes manual will be put to good use this weekend. I’m finally going to get a chance to take the wheel off this afternoon I think, and will post some more pictures. Hopefully it’s not messed up any more than this.
 
If you “completely lost brakes” you blew a line. Has nothing to do with your previous slight pull while braking.
And why do you think the rim is shot? Unless you rammed it into something it’s fine.
 
Snboarder113 said:
If you “completely lost brakes” you blew a line. Has nothing to do with your previous slight pull while braking.
And why do you think the rim is shot? Unless you rammed it into something it’s fine.
Click to expand...
That's what I thought at first, that I blew a line. But that's still in place and looks intact. I'm replacing them all anyway, regardless. And the second pic is showing the inside of rim, with the busted rotor above it- that doesn't look too rusted to be safe driving on it? (honest question, the more opinions the better).
 
Looks like a rotor that had been ridden on pads worn to bare metal (and then likely on the caliper's piston after the Pad shot out when it was the thickness of tinfoil). The Rotor looks completely worn/metal on metal contact. How often do you check/change your pads? Riding on nonexistent pads would definitely account for your "pulling" in any direction.
 
Oh, and before I forget:
Where you live shouldn't dictate how often you do your maintenance. if it does, go to the local mechanic or even the dealership. And if you don't like paying to have it done, and don't want to do it yourself, I'd get rid of your Jeep and get something different.
Jeeps require A LOT of maintence, and if your unwilling to do it yourself, and I guess unwilling to have someone else do it you probably should't be driving in a Jeep.
As evidenced by your rotors, that's months of daily driving without any pad surface, destroying your rotors and being a general hazard to anyone on the road. I'm surprised the brakes lasted this long. From the description, I can assume your windows up, AC cranked, and Radio likely also cranked with it? How could you not have heard the grinding for months?

PS> don't want to come off as abusive/argumentitive. But seriously, how could you have missed Hearing/Feeling the Grinding in the pedal every time you pressed the brake?
 
Oh, and the E-Brake is a separate braking device (thankfully) and is located inside the rear brake rotors (it's actually a lot like a mini drum brake inside the rotor for the main disk brake). Please don't try to drive it anywhere only using that brake Have it towed. It's not designed for anything other than holding the jeep in place when it's parked...
 
BlackKnight said:
Oh, and before I forget:
Where you live shouldn't dictate how often you do your maintenance. if it does, go to the local mechanic or even the dealership. And if you don't like paying to have it done, and don't want to do it yourself, I'd get rid of your Jeep and get something different.
Jeeps require A LOT of maintence, and if your unwilling to do it yourself, and I guess unwilling to have someone else do it you probably should't be driving in a Jeep.
As evidenced by your rotors, that's months of daily driving without any pad surface, destroying your rotors and being a general hazard to anyone on the road. I'm surprised the brakes lasted this long. From the description, I can assume your windows up, AC cranked, and Radio likely also cranked with it? How could you not have heard the grinding for months?

PS> don't want to come off as abusive/argumentitive. But seriously, how could you have missed Hearing/Feeling the Grinding in the pedal every time you pressed the brake?
Click to expand...

I 100% agree- I'm perfectly willing and want to do the work myself- that's part of the reason I like Jeeps, but I was negligent with this and procrastinated too long. I'm just happy and very lucky no one got hurt because of it. I don't expect that the majority of members here need this particular reminder, but maybe some new members or lurkers could find this helpful as an example of absolutely what not to do.
Though I drive with the windows down and at least the front half of the soft top flipped back as often as possible and I hardly ever use the air conditioner, I do have the radio cranked up. I didn't feel grinding until last week, just squealing when I was coming to a stop and even that wasn't (I thought) too bad.
And no, I don't take that as argumentative. This is definitely a lesson learned.
To your other comment, no I'm not driving it anymore until this is fixed.
Thank you for the feedback!
 
I agree with WJCO that your pads spit out and the caliper piston started losing fluid until it was empty. As for the wheel, it's aluminum and all the rust is from the shavings of pad and rotor being slung inside the wheel when you hit the brakes. It has no effect on the integrity of your wheel. If you get a good iron removing wheel cleaner it should break all that down and look good as new. The only possible issue I see is it looks like the brake fluid may have caused the paint inside the wheel to wrinkle so it may peel off soon but bare aluminum is still weather resistant enough for LA. It just doesn't do well with salt.
 
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